US Army's PrSM enters EMD phase

The US Army has requested USD166 million in fiscal year 2022 for 110 Precision Strike Missiles. (US Army)

The US Army Contracting Command at Redstone Arsenal has awarded Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control a USD23.9 million contract for engineering and manufacturing development (EMD), and Early Operational Capability Lot 1 missiles – currently in Milestone B – of the Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) weapon system.

The contract – the estimated completion of which is late April 2025 – is a modification to an earlier USD20 million contract awarded by the army in April for the procurement of long-lead item materials needed to support the development, testing, and qualification of the PrSM system.

Milestone B is a Milestone Decision Authority-led review at the end of the Technology Maturation and Risk Reduction (TMRR) phase in the defence acquisition process. The 1 December contract moves the PrSM programme from the TMRR phase to the EMD phase, where the development of system will be matured – including full system integration, developing the manufacturing processes, completing system fabrication, and test and evaluation of the system – before proceeding to the Production and Deployment phase.The US Army has requested USD166 million in fiscal year 2022 for 110 Precision Strike Missiles.

PrSM is an accelerated US Army initiative, dating from March 2017, to develop and field an all-weather long-range precision strike capability, using ground-launched missile-delivered indirect fires, to engage imprecisely located area and point targets.

Lockheed Martin's PrSM solution features a new insensitive munitions solid rocket motor developed by Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems, and an enhanced lethality warhead for the PrSM target set. Guidance is delivered by advanced inertial navigation supported by a GPS capability.